As well known, refrigerators are apparatuses which store food at a temperature below the ambient temperature of the compartment. Refrigerators are configured to provide freezing storage or cold storage of food according to the kind of food.
The internal space of such a refrigerator is cooled by cold air that is continuously supplied thereinto. Cold air is continuously generated by heat exchange of refrigerant through a cooling cycle including compression, condensation, expansion, and evaporation. Cold air supplied into the refrigerator is uniformly applied to the internal space of the refrigerator by convection, whereby food in the refrigerator can be stored at a desired temperature.
Generally, a main body of the refrigerator has a rectangular parallelepiped structure that is open on a front surface thereof. A refrigerating compartment and a freezing compartment are provided in the main body. A refrigerating compartment door and a freezing compartment door are provided on the front surface of the main body so as to selectively open or close the opening of the refrigerator. A plurality of drawers, shelves, and storage boxes may be provided in the internal space formed in the refrigerator so that different kinds of foods can be stored under optimal conditions.
Conventionally, top mount refrigerators, in which a freezing compartment is disposed above a refrigerating compartment, have been mainly used. Recently, bottom-freezer refrigerators, in which a freezing compartment is disposed below a refrigerating compartment, were introduced to improve user convenience. The bottom-freezer refrigerators are advantageous in that users can more conveniently use the refrigerating compartment because the refrigerating compartment, which is comparatively frequently used, is disposed in an upper portion of the refrigerator, while the freezing compartment, which is used comparatively less than the refrigerating compartment, is disposed below the refrigerating compartment. However, the bottom-freezer refrigerators make a user bend over when drawing ice out of the freezing compartment because the freezing compartment is disposed in a lower portion of the refrigerator, thus inconveniencing the user.
In an effort to overcome the above problem, a bottom-freezer refrigerator in which an ice dispenser is provided in a door of a refrigerating compartment disposed in an upper portion of the refrigerator was recently proposed. In this case, an ice machine for producing ice may be provided in the refrigerating compartment door or the refrigerating compartment.
The ice machine may include an ice-making system which generates ice and is provided with an ice tray, an ice bucket which stores generated ice therein, and a transfer system transferring ice stored in the ice bucket to the dispenser.
Furthermore, an ice-making duct is installed to connect the freezing compartment with the ice machine. In detail, the ice-making duct is installed in a left or right sidewall of the refrigerating compartment such that an ice compartment connects with the freezing compartment through the ice-making duct when a door is closed.
Therefore, when the door opens, the ice-making duct is separated from the ice compartment. When the door is closed, the ice-making duct connects with the ice compartment so that cold air for generating ice can be supplied from the freezing compartment to the ice compartment through the ice-making duct.
However, the conventional refrigerator has the following problems.
First, the ice-making duct is installed in the left or right sidewall of the refrigerating compartment; thus, a separate structure for insulating the duct is required. Therefore, the internal capacity of the refrigerator is reduced, and the piping structure of the refrigerator is complex.
Second, only when the door is closed can cold air be transferred from the freezing compartment to the refrigerating compartment. When the door opens, cold air that passes through the ice-making duct is discharged out of the refrigerator. Therefore, the energy efficiency of the refrigerator is reduced.
Third, ice is produced by an indirect cooling method using cold air that is supplied from the ice-making duct. As such, since ice is not directly cooled, the time required to produce ice is increased.